The present invention relates generally to medical technology and in particular aspects to methods and apparatuses for delivering anchoring devices into body passage walls.
As further background, anchoring devices such as T-anchors may be delivered into walls of a hollow organ or other body structure for a variety of reasons. Often, an anchoring device will be employed to anchor or at least help anchor another object in the body, for example, another anchoring device or an endoluminal gastrointestinal device such as but not limited to an artificial stoma device, a gastrointestinal bypass sleeve device or an attachment cuff. Additionally or alternatively, an anchoring device may be placed in a body passage wall in an effort to close an opening in the wall or otherwise secure portions of the wall together.
An opening may be present in a body passage wall for a variety of reasons, for example, as a result of disease or an intentional or unintentional trauma. In performing some medical procedures, an opening is intentionally created in a body lumen wall, for example, from within the lumen to provide access to a region of the body occurring beyond the lumen wall. This category of procedures includes NOTES (Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery). During NOTES, a flexible endoscope or other similar instrument is used to create a transvisceral incision via natural orifice access to enter the peritoneal cavity where a variety of medical procedures including but not limited to diagnostic exploration, gastric bypass, liver biopsy, oophorectomy, cholecystectomy, appendectomy, splenectomy, and fallopian tubal ligation can be performed. Following the intervention, the scope is pulled back through the opening, and the opening is closed.
While minimally invasive access to the abdominal cavity is required for a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in the medical field, until recently, such abdominal access has required a formal laparotomy to provide sufficient exposure. NOTES can provide an alternative or supplement to other types of surgery. It eliminates abdominal incisions and incision-related complications by combining endoscopic and laparoscopic techniques to diagnose and treat abdominal pathology. Common incision-related complications such as wound infections, incisional hernias, postoperative pain, aesthetic disdain, and adhesions can be minimized or eliminated by NOTES.
There remain needs for improved and/or alternative methods and apparatuses for delivering anchoring devices and other similar objects into body passage walls. The present invention is addressed to those needs.